“I peeped into Mosta’s celebrations and saw the immense domed space filled with 10,000 people swarming around their Passion statues’’ ‒ Robin Bryans in Malta and Gozo guidebook (Faber and Faber, 1966).

Holy Week in the Maltese islands sees the amalgamation of religious beliefs and spectacular pageantry. Few other local traditions show the same signs of vitality, change and motion as that of the Good Friday procession-turned-pageants with life-sized images representing the main events of the passion and death of Christ.

Various influences have been at work in shaping this tradition. The original impulse came from the Franciscan friars (popularly known locally as Ta’ Ġieżu) who, notwithstanding the ravages of past and present-day sectarian conflicts, still have connections with pastoral work in the Holy Land and carry out specific activities revolving around the Holy Sepulchre.

There was also a direct influence from religious customs in Spain and analogous traditions in Sicily where similar processions introduced on the pattern of the Genoese casazze in the 16th century were gradually elaborated under Spanish domination. Also, the Maltese Church’s dependence on the diocese of Palermo up to 1807 may account for the similarities with various localities in neighbouring Sicily.

The Guild of St Joseph, linked with the Franciscan friars of Rabat, was the first to organise such a procession in Malta, followed by its counterpart, the Guild of the Holy Crucifix, at the Valletta friary.

The first statues and draped effigies

Historic anecdotes recall that, in the early years of the 18th century, some merchants and sea captains from Vittoriosa happened to witness a Good Friday procession in Spain. This experience prompted them to commission a similar set of statues for the parish church of their native city.

Some of these effigies, known as mankini, made of papier-mâché and draped in fine cloth, were kept during the year in the private homes of wealthy families in Vittoriosa and their ancestors contributed towards their expenses and care (Ġ. Cassar Pullicino, Lecture notes on Maltese Folklore).

The 18th century saw more localities holding similar processions: Vittoriosa, Senglea and Cospicua (c.1700), Żejtun (c. 1740), Naxxar (c.1750), Qormi (c.1784), Għargħur (c.1792) and Luqa (c.1795).

Similar progress was recorded in the 19th century, extending to Żebbuġ, Malta. Between 1800 and 1866, processions with life-sized statues were introduced in Victoria (St George parish church) in Gozo, Għaxaq (c.1820) and Mosta (c.1866). Between 1900 and the outbreak of the World War II, there was no further development in Malta.  The scene, however, shifted to Gozo where St Mary’s Cathedral at the Citadel added a separate manifestation to the one at St George. This procession retained  some of the statues that previously featured in the other church’s annual manifestation.

Other Good Friday processions in Gozo started taking place in Nadur (1913), Xagħra (1914) and Żebbuġ (1919).

From 1921, a set of statues appeared at Xewkija, however, these were not taken out in procession, with the exception of the Pietà group, which started being taken out in procession on the Friday of Sorrows, known as Jum id-Duluri.

After World War II, a number of statues increased gradually at Christ the King parish church, in Paola. In other churches across the Maltese islands, a number of statues were either replaced or added to the original ones.

The Redentur has attracted the faithful since the 18th century

With the inauguration of its own statuary groups, Qala parish church in Gozo organises a procession on Palm Sunday.

Maltese religious and traditional art

As specimens of Maltese popular art, these Passion episodes represent the highest form achieved in the papier-mâché technique, which is believed to have been introduced in Malta by an unknown lay brother from Sicily.

A Maltese barber-surgeon, Saver Laferla, who practised art on the sidelines, successfully used the technique between 1739 and 1742 when he worked on Good Friday statues for Ta’ Ġieżu church, in Valletta.

Many local artists have popularised this technique since the 18th century, the best known being Senglea-born Carlo Darmanin (1825-1909) and, more recently, Wistin Camilleri of Gozo, who bestowed his talents on to his sons Alfred and Michael.

Other contemporary artists are also carving statues out of wood.

Back to the old times, special mention goes to two artistic statues: the Scourging at the Pillar, known in the vernacular as Il-Marbut or Tal-Kolonna, and the Ecce Homo, l-Inkurunat bix-Xewk or L-Aċċjomu of Vittoriosa. Both statues were modelled and executed by the eminent Maltese sculptor Salvatore Psaila in 1831.

Il-Marbut or Tal-Kolonna at Ta’ Ġieżu church, in Valletta is a masterpiece in wood by another Maltese sculptor, Pietro Paolo Azzopardi, who also adorned the processional statuary group at St George’s Basilica in Gozo with a devotional and artistic crucifix, a prominent figure of Il-Vara l-Kbira.

Tracing old times again, Vittoriosa originally held three processions during Holy Week. The first one would be held on Wednesday (l-Erbgħa tat-Tniebri) from the church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, with the participation of crews from the Order’s galleys, including baptised slaves and others condemned for various crimes to wear iron chains (Lorenzo Zahra, Il-Purċissjonijiet tal-Ġimgħa l-Kbira, Taqsima Birgu, PIN, 1992).

These “forzati” were accustomed to carrying the Crucifixion statuary group shoulder high, which compelled them to rest every 20 or 30 paces.

Similar traditions are kept alive during the procession held by St George’s Basilica in Gozo, where participants drag a considerable length and weight of iron chains at their ankles, incorporating a kind of penitential or votive religious practice from the era of the knights. This manifestation has retained its original and simple devotional status without the pomp of parades marking most of today’s processions.

Continuing on the procession theme of olden times, other processions were in held in Vittoriosa by the Dominican church of the Annunciation on Maundy Thursday and St Lawrence collegiate church, in Vittoriosa. The latter was by far the most important procession as the city’s notable people, including the governing jurats, took part in it. The Greek Papas would lead another procession on the same day for the Greek community in the city.

Vivid portraits from the past

Half-way through the 19th century, George Percy Badger, an English author synonymous with his pen portrait of Malta during his time, described the procession in Valletta: “The train leaves the church of Ta’ Ġieżu a little before sunset, the fratelli and friars walking in file on each side of the street with huge lighted wax tapers in their hands chanting as they follow the procession which re-enters the church from which it came from’’ (G.P. Badger, Description of Malta and Gozo, 1839).

The first Good Friday processions made their way till very late at night but, in 1879, Bishop Scicluna ordered that all processions were to be back in church by 8pm. Besides, these should only be held on Good Friday and he withdrew permission for bands playing during the processions. Due to strong protests and public outrage, bands eventually continued to take part.

The list of anecdotes relating to Holy Week traditions and religious folklore is endless but no research study on the theme of devotional iconography would be complete without at least giving an honourable mention to two historic images deeply rooted in the religious beliefs of the Maltese people. 

The sacred effigy of Christ the Redeemer venerated at its sanctuary in the Senglea basilica needs no introduction. This statue of the Redentur has attracted the faithful since the 18th century.

Another crowd-puller during Holy Week  and, indeed all year round, is the miraculous effigy of the Kurċifiss of Ta’ Ġieżu, in Valletta, which was already revered by the faithful with fervour and devotion as early as 1667 (Pietro Tognoletto, OFM – Cronaca Palermo, 1667).

Although history books say that the crucifix was the work of the saintly Fra Umile, tradition has it that the crowned head was shaped through divine intervention.